Painting Rapala DT

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This is my first post on this board. I love fishing with the DT. My question is could you tell me the steps on how to re paint a rapala dt from what to do first to the finish product. I will be using a airbrush. I need to know what kind of primer to final coat. Thanks

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All the grumpy guys must be in bed LOL. At any rate what you do first is read some of the threads on here theres tons of info about repaints,do a search ,upper right hand corner Once you,ve done that then if you have ques fire away. If you read all the threads we shouldn,t hear from you for a year or two (just joking). Really all the info is there and theres different ways you can do it, so read, get some ideas and then if you have any ques the guys will help. By the way, welcome to TU

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well i havnt repainted any DT's yet but from my experince from rapalas is very cool. I first took the dremel to the lure to get the clear coat off and the paint. After i got all that junk off there i found that there was a coat of primer. this stuff was very soft i did with sand paper and it all came off easy. Then i was down to the sealer of the wood. The sealer seemed that it was unharmed:eek:. It was as if it was a coat of epoxy over the lure. With further inspection i noticed no bad spots in the clear coat that came on the lure. I then just started to paint away. Once i got all the paint done i put a coat of epoxy on and it was ready to hit the water.

Ive repainted other large balsa cranks and the clear coat wasnt near as good as the rapalas so i sealed these in propionate.

but thats just my of how i do repaints for rapalas

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My whole business is repaints. Before I get into my process, I'll clear up an issue that will ultimately be brought up. Weight. I did a HUGE study on repaints for my more anal customers and weight for suspending and/or floating baits. What we found was that almost ANY factory bait can vary by up to 50%, most in the 10-25% range. Repainting only increased the weight by a 12% average using my system, with ZERO complaints to date. Unless you know the average weight of a given lure, stripping it to bare wood is pointless. You may be making it too light and not even know it. Generally, you'l see a bigger difference in weight by changing hook types.

My system is to scuff the entire bait with 220. Prime with AutoAir white basecoat sealer. Hit it with AutoAir colors. Then seal it up with a quality 100% solids epoxy clear.

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If you start sanding off finish and get down to bare wood, you've gone too far! It's very difficult to fix a spot of soft balsa wood when there is hard undercoating or finish around it. I suggest you hand sand the existing finish with 400 grit paper. No need to get too harsh with it - the DT's are buoyant and can easily carry the little bit of finish and clearcoat you'll be adding, so you really only need to scuff up the existing finish to promote adhesion. Wipe it down with some denatured alcohol to remove any particles. Tape off the lip with painter's tape. Shoot a basecoat of white acrylic latex, then the new colors you want. Dry them with a hair dryer as you go. A few hours later, brush on a coat of Devcon Two Ton epoxy, rotate the bait for 30-45 mins until it begins to harden, then hang it for 24 hrs to finish curing the epoxy - and go fishing. Make sure the epoxy is mixed in equal measures and is mixed thoroughly.

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over 20 years we have painted raps. pull the hooks, tape the lip painters tapes. use wh/ lacquer prime. it etches the clear coat and spray away. . as downriver stated it normally will not affect action. . quality clears are recomended for finish coats.